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100 years of council housing – a time for celebration
20/12/2018
Labelled as
Development, Consultation, Tenants

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1919 'Addison Act', which paved the way
for large-scale council housing. The 1919 Housing & Town
Planning Act for the first time made housing a national
responsibility and gave councils the task of developing new housing
for working people.

The Act was commonly known as the Addison Act after Dr
Christopher Addison the Minister for Heath who introduced the Act
with the aim of providing "Homes fit for heroes" after the end of
the First World War.

2018 has seen national celebrations to mark 70 years of the NHS,
100 years of the RAF and the centenary of the ending of WW1. At
this time, when council housing and council tenants are often
unfairly stigmatised, ARCH believes it is time to celebrate the
contribution council housing has made to society over the last 100
years and the role it can and should be allowed to play in
providing affordable rented accommodation for low income families
in the future.

ARCH raised the anniversary in the recent meeting with Housing Minister Kit
Malthouse and following that meeting ARCH has been in
discussion with officials at the Ministry of Housing, Communities
& Local Government (MHCLG) on ways in which we might mark the
centenary.

We have agreed to work collaboratively with MHCLG to mark the
centenary and we are putting together a paper for consideration by
MHCLG on how we might do this and would welcome views and comments
from our member councils. In particular, we would be interested to
know:

Does your council have any council housing built under the
Addison Act in the period 1919- 1922?

Is your council planning any local celebration to mark the
centenary of the building of council housing in your area?

Do you have any ideas or suggestions about how the stock
retained sector should mark the centenary?

Are you planning to build and complete any new council housing
in 2019?

We will be having further discussions with MHCLG officials early
in the New Year on how to mark the centenary and would like to hear
from ARCH member councils with your ideas and suggestions. Please
contact ARCH Chief Executive John Bibby: john.bibby@arch-housing.org.uk